FGCU coach Joe Dooley took time away from offseason preparations Tuesday night for the men's basketball team's postseason banquet on the Alico Arena main floor, where the same question was on the minds of many of the 250-300 attendees.

Is he leaving or staying?

Declining comment on reports that he is a candidate for the job opening at Tulsa — a natural fit for the long-time former Kansas assistant for multiple reasons — Dooley and his staff have been busy the past two weeks going through workouts with returning players for next season.

"I think everybody's a little bit worried about not having Dooley return," said FGCU booster club chairman Brian Rasnick. "Everybody seems to like him. I think he's meshed with the players. He's got (transfers) that sat on the bench this year waiting to play next year who learned his system."

Dooley, 48, speculated by multiple outlets to be a leading candidate for vacancies at Boston College and Tulsa, spoke only of FGCU's prospects next season during his podium talk Tuesday night.

"I think the good thing we can do going into next year is take this year, build on it, get stronger," said Dooley, who took FGCU within one win of a second consecutive berth in the NCAA tournament.

"We've added more depth. We've got some (transfers) sitting out that I think will really help us. We've got a great nucleus of seniors. … That's our job, is to keep moving the program forward."

Tulsa athletic director Derrick Gragg said he'd like to have a new coach named by next week. The Boston College position was filled last week.

Amid constant online chatter naming their coach a candidate for other jobs for the second consecutive offseason, FGCU players had different responses to the conjecture.

"I think after the Enfield thing you learn, you always look at it," said FGCU rising senior point guard Brett Comer, who learned of former FGCU coach Andy Enfield's departure for USC last year on Twitter, minutes before a team meeting was called.

"I guess I've learned you've got to kind of live with it and deal with how it's going. But what he's told us is he's only worried about being here with us and getting ready for next year. I'll take him by his word."

Julian DeBose, one of three scholarship transfers last summer who is expected to help bolster FGCU into a stronger, deeper squad next season, said players aren't worried.

"That doesn't catch our attention," he said of online reports. "We know that Dooley is here for us."

Center Eric McKnight, one of six seniors expected back next season, said he understood the nature of a business where head coaches earn six- and seven-figure salaries.

"That's how college basketball goes," McKnight said. "You're not always going to have the same coach when you're at the professional level, either."

McKnight pointed to what he deemed the coaching stability at higher-level programs, such as Duke.

"I wish it was like that at this school," he said. "It has a lot more growing to do."

Regardless of Dooley's future, Rasnick said the relatively limited resources of a program that is still in only its third season as a full-fledged Division-I program will continue to leave it ripe to have its winning coaches plucked away.

"We know that we're an attractive program now," said Rasnick, pointing to FGCU athletic director Ken Kavanagh's hirings the past three years of Enfield and Dooley.

"Ken is a good athletic director at hiring people and spotting gems. I think a lot of schools and other athletic directors are watching who he is interviewing and thinking, 'Maybe we want them.'

"Until we get up in salary, we're going to be a place where coaches come in for a couple years and then go to bigger and better places. It's great for the coaches. We just have to protect our system. There's only so much we can do with the money we have."